Steel Guitar Builder

It is largely a matter of what suits our ears, what suits our concept of sound and vibration transfers. When the end result is good to our ears and the ears of highly experienced musicians then we will tend to adhere to the building concepts that made our product sound good. This is not to say that ...

Ron, I love this a lot! Look at the pillow blocks, the way you have them made and installed. It oozes of strength and good looks at the same time. I might do some copying here. Nice to observe that you made brass fingers with string-thru-finger mounting. I have found this combination to work very we...

Will, thanks for bringing up my brass fingers. Mike thanks for the endorsement that I am maybe doing something right. You were right, Mike. The brass has been received well.Apart from being much heavier than aluminum, brass fingers have at least one thing that might be better. It is much harder to w...

Xavier, There is no doubt in my mind: You are an artist in the truest sense of the word. Everything - right from picking out the nicest wood to the final sanding and finish, your creations speak of high quality and beauty.

Mikko, this is an interesting concept. I haven't studied it enough to even make a half decent comment but at first glance it sure makes me want to follow your ideas and study your pics. It is obvious to me that this is a take-off on the classic pull/release changer. Couple of questions: the lever co...

When I wrote what I did, I had only "clear coat" meaning lacquer in mind. I will go along with you Richard in saying that some kind of polish might work, but I can't agree with "fine grit" polish. Even the finest grit will leave swirl marks on mica I'm afraid. Maybe Maguiars Swirl remover will do th...

No. It would peel off in no time. Formica is supposed to have a nice clear finish without any help. If it does not, the remedy is to put on new formica.

Mike if you are handy with a band saw and flat file, use that. NOT recommended! I have never been able to file a flat surface. What I used for my first couple of steels was my table saw. The big secret here is to get the workpiece fastened securely enough so you are sure it stays put. and then take ...

Will what I meant with o/c pivot points was the "on center" of the screws you have for the finger and the lower bar - the distance between the two appeared to be too close. And then yo also have the distance from the lower-bar screw to where the lower bar touches the finger. The closer they are, the...

Opinion: The setscrew is weak in that it holds on to a very small area of the cross shaft. It invites loosening and dead play after a few hours operation. The best of this evil would be a cup set screw (larger holding surface than a point). Use stainless steel ones you can reef them tighter than bla...